During consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 4049), Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced an amendment to withdraw American soldiers from Afghanistan within one year of the bill’s enactment, and to repeal the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) that was used as authorization for U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11.
The Senate tabled (killed) Paul’s amendment on July 1, 2020 by a vote of 60 to 33 (Roll Call 129). We have assigned pluses to the nays because, as Paul put it in his remarks on the Senate floor, “the people who attacked on 9/11 have all been killed or captured,” and “it is not sustainable to keep fighting in Afghanistan generation after generation.” Instead, it is long past time to bring the troops home. The AUMF that the amendment would repeal has been used broadly by presidents to send troops into foreign conflicts, despite the fact that under the Constitution only Congress may declare war.
